Formula One : May God Save The King

The end of a reign

The results since the beginning of the season are alarming, no victory and no top 2, the German team is no longer performing, it is regressing. Qualifications were catastrophic, Mercedes could not find a rhythm, the change in regulations completely upset Mercedes’s plans. The new engine did not give any satisfaction despite an improvement during the Spanish Grand Prix, the Mercedes drivers only recover crumbs in the ranking left by their direct competitor. Mercedes wants to move forward and forget this beginning of the season, the objective is to go “to seek the Red Bull and Ferrari on the track” says the boss of the team Toto Wolff.

George Russel: the student who surpasses the master

“The British hope”, “the successor of his majesty Lewis Hamilton”, so many nicknames for so many hopes of the young British within Mercedes. The Bahrain Grand Prix of 2020 had shown real expectations for Russell in a performance car. He has done it again this year, 8 Grand Prix, 8 top 5, he is the only one to have this honorable statistic. He has shown consistency in both racing and qualifying. But what strikes all observers is that he is more efficient than his teammate, 7 times world champion with Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton. His lack of experience is not felt, on the contrary his ardour and his enthusiasm which seems to be lacking in his teammate seems to animate him for this beginning of the year

The King is dying

We have to go back to 2013 to witness a season without championship ambitions for Hamilton. After suffering a humiliation in Abu Dhabi last year, Hamilton seems resigned and aware that he can’t fight for the championship. His surprising 3rd place at the inaugural Grand Prix of 2022 (2 DNF of the Red Bulls…) was a decoy, the British driver is unable to have rhythm and a performing car. The blow of massacre for the seventh champion of the world is especially that he takes a monstrous gap with his teammate. Nevertheless, this Sunday, Hamilton will try to conquer his public of always, at home in Great Britain in Silverstone. “I think if we give him a car that is only a few tenths off the leaders, he will win the race,” Wolff told Reuters. The question that will be asked in the coming months, what if this is Lewis Hamilton’s last season in F1?